Dewar's Champion's Edition, Woodford Reserve Father's Day, Old Forester, Blue Run, & More

It’s Father’s Day weekend, and earlier in the week we posted a piece that covered a wide range of Father's Day gift choices to suit nearly every dad. We follow here with an array of new whiskeys, many of which could also be in the running—notably a just-released Father’s Day Bourbon Collection from Woodford Reserve. Among other noteworthy new items, Old Forester is offering a new batch of its President’s Choice single barrel bourbon, while Blue Run is back with Flight Series II, featuring six micro-batch whiskeys. Texas whiskey maker Still Austin has a summer release of its Bottled in Bond red corn, and the Penelope Cooper Series has a new release of its bourbon finished in grenache rosé wine casks from the Southern Rhône.

For scotch lovers, the U.S. Open golf championship is in full swing this weekend, and Dewar’s is out with this year’s release of its 19 year old Champion’s Edition. It’s always one of the best bargains in whisky and not a bad gift choice at all for the golf-loving dad.

Woodford Reserve Limited Edition Father’s Day Bourbon Collection

ABV: 45.2%
SRP: $80/1 liter
Availability: At the distillery; select batches are available online

In celebration of Father’s Day, Woodford Reserve master distiller Elizabeth McCall crafted a series of seven bourbons with help from her dad, Tim O’Neill.

Each batch was blended from two barrels with a different profile in mind, and the distillery claims they all taste different. The first is said to taste like sweet tobacco, baking spice, and dark fruits. The second batch is also spicy, with graham crackers, cinnamon, and honeysuckle alongside a floral finish. Batch 3 is much darker, with notes of mocha and flavors of roasted coffee and nutmeg. The fourth one is much sweeter, reminiscent of marshmallows, brown sugar, overripe bananas, and candied fruits. Batch No. 5 plays more into the citrus and woody side, with tangerine, cooked peaches, cinnamon, cedar wood, mint, and charred oak.

If you’re looking for a last-minute Father’s Day gift, there may be some extra difficulty in acquiring one (or more) of these bourbons. While all seven are available at the distillery, only Batches 1–5 are available for purchase online. Batches 6 and 7 are both exclusive to the distillery. Woodford Reserve’s shipping only covers Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C.

Old Forester President’s Choice Single Barrel Bourbon (2024)

ABV: 52.5%–60%
SRP: $225
Availability: At the distillery and online

Old Forester has released a new batch of its coveted President’s Choice single barrel bourbon. This year’s version includes barrels that range from 7–12 years old, each of which are bottled at barrel strength between 52.5% and 60% ABV. While the exact size of the release is undisclosed, Old Forester says that this is the largest President’s Choice batch thus far—encompassing more barrels than any of the previous releases.

President’s Choice got its start back in 1964 when Brown-Forman president George Garvin Brown II selected specific barrels to be bottled and sold as single barrel bourbon. The expression would fall dormant just eight years after that, before being brought back in 2018 to celebrate the opening of Old Forester’s downtown Louisville distillery. That batch, which featured liquid around 8 years old and cost $90, scored 91 points with our tasting panel.

Dewar’s 19 year old Blended Scotch – The Champion’s Edition (2024 Release)

ABV: 43%
SRP: $80
Availability: reservebar.com and dewars.com

With the 124^th U.S. Open underway at the Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina, Dewar’s has unveiled this year’s Champion’s Edition scotch whisky. It’s always aged for 19 years as a nod to the 19^th hole, but for this year’s release, Dewar’s master blender Stephanie Macleod double aged the blend in first-fill rye casks. Dewar’s has kept the price of this annual release unchanged for the past four years at $80—not bad at all for a 19 year old scotch.

As the official whisky of the U.S. Open, the Dewar’s partnership began with a bourbon cask finish in 2021 (rated 92 points), followed by a 91-point blend in 2022 finished in bourbon, new American oak, and rye barrels. Last year’s 92-point whisky was finished in red wine casks from Napa Valley. Macleod used extra maturation in rye casks most recently on the Dewar’s Double Double 21 year old Rye Cask Finish, which was launched as an NFT on blockbar.com in 2022.

Blue Run Flight Series II Bourbon

ABV: Varies
SRP: $120
Availability: Limited

Kentucky-based Blue Run debuted its first Flight Series in 2022; like that inaugural edition, Flight Series II features six micro-batch whiskeys that highlight whiskey director Shaylyn Gammon’s blending skills. Gammon used 3 to 4 barrels of Blue Run’s high-rye bourbon for each whiskey in this flight; as with other Blue Run whiskeys, these were contract-distilled at Castle & Key, as well as Bardstown Bourbon Co. and an unnamed distillery. The whiskeys aged in #4 alligator char barrels.

The six whiskeys in Flight Series II are:

• Biscayne Breeze—blended from 3 barrels, bottled at 57.05% ABV (690 bottles available)
• Joshua Tree Sunrise—blended from 3 barrels, bottled at barrel proof of 58.5% ABV (672 bottles available)
• Miami Sunset—blended from 4 barrels, bottled at 57.5% ABV (900 bottles available)
• Santa Monica Pier—blended from 4 barrels, bottled at 57.55% ABV (672 bottles available)
• Tahoe Powder—blended from 3 barrels, bottled at barrel proof of 58% ABV (636 bottles available)
• Yosemite Pine—blended from 3 barrels, bottled at barrel proof of 58.3% ABV (636 bottles available)

While Blue Run’s whiskeys are currently all contract-distilled, that’s set to change in the future, with the construction of a new distilling complex in Georgetown, Kentucky underway. Even after the new distillery is on stream, Blue Run’s releases are likely to remain small and micro-batch for some time. Blue Run is owned by Coors Spirits Co., which acquired it last year.

Penelope Cooper Series Rosé Cask Finished Bourbon (Batch 8)

ABV: 47%
SRP: $50
Availability: Limited

MGP-owned whiskey label Penelope chimes in this week with a new batch of its Rosé Cask Finished bourbon. It uses a four-grain bourbon base (74% corn, 16% wheat, 7% rye, and 3% malted barley) which undergoes a 4-month finish in grenache rosé casks sourced from the Southern Rhône region of France.

Rosé Cask Finished has a fairly interesting position in Penelope’s whiskey portfolio. The initial batch, which arrived in October 2020, laid the groundwork for Penelope’s Cooper Series—the label’s home for experimental cask finishes, which includes high-scoring expressions like Rio and Tokaji Cask Finished. Rosé Cask has since been adopted into the Cooper Series family, and recent batches have shown improvement over the original. Last year’s batch scored 89 points.

291 Colorado Whiskey Good Guy Barrel Proof Four Grain Rye Whiskey

ABV: 61.4%
SRP: $150
Availability: Limited; available online

Distillery 291’s newest expression is a four-grain rye whiskey that was bottled at barrel proof. As the name implies, this whiskey is meant to be a counterpart to 291’s Bad Guy four-grain bourbon. Good Guy’s mashbill is a riff on the Bad Guy recipe, with the corn and rye percentages flipped. Like many of the distillery’s other releases, Good Guy was finished using aspen wood staves.

On paper, the concept of a wheated rye is a somewhat curious one. Much of the strangeness comes down to the contrary flavor profiles of the two grains. Though wheat certainly has applications in four-grain bourbons and wheat whiskeys, it’s most usually found in wheated bourbons—where it’s used as a substitute for rye, acting as a sweeter and softer alternative to rye’s trademark spiciness. As a result, wheated ryes and four-grain ryes are a rarity.

With that being said, 291 Distillery isn’t the only whiskey maker that has played around with this arcane style. Wisconsin-based J. Henry & Sons offers a four-grain rye whiskey made using Spooner rye, winter wheat, heirloom red corn, and malted barley. Florida’s Kozuba & Sons Distillery offers two high-wheat rye whiskeys, both of which have 65% rye and 35% wheat mashbills.

TX Whiskey Unaged White Dog

ABV: 60%
SRP: $40
Availability: Limited; 1,400 375 ml bottles

Each year, TX Whiskey adds a new expression to its Experimental Series. In the past, such releases have included variously finished bourbons (among them one finished in rum and cognac barrels, and one finished in cabernet barrels), as well as rye whiskeys (the TX stable highlights bourbons and blended whiskeys, making rye an outlier).

Now, the distillery’s ninth Experimental Series whiskey is here, and it’s a bit off the beaten path compared to its usual fare. TX Unaged White Dog is made from Texas-sourced corn, wheat, and malted barley, and sees no barrel maturation—the whiskey’s flavor comes entirely from the grains, yeast, fermentation, and distillation.

All white dog whiskeys, which also go under the name of white lightning, white whiskey, and light whiskey, are made from unaged distillate. This genre received some attention a bit more than a decade ago when Buffalo Trace White Dog garnered short-lived praise for its 2012 release. But the mini-craze died away quickly in favor of aged expressions as the whiskey boom moved into high gear.

In celebration of the launch, TX is hosting a party at its Whiskey Ranch in Forth Worth, Texas on June 14, with VIP entry starting at 5 p.m.; VIP ticket holders ($50) will have an opportunity to meet with the whiskey maker, head distiller Evan Brewer, as well as have their bottle(s) signed and go on a tour of the distillery. General admission ($10) will begin at 6 p.m., at which point guests can enjoy live music and food trucks.

Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Bottled In Bond Bourbon

ABV: 50%
SRP: $80
Availability: Maverick Distilling and maverickdistilling.com

Two barrels of Maverick Distilling’s Private Reserve bourbon were selected for this limited release as a bottled in bond expression. Like Private Reserve, the bottled in bond iteration is made using Texas-grown corn, rye, and barley, distilled on a copper hybrid still, and aged for at least 4 years. Standard Private Reserve has an ABV of 45%, while its Bottled in Bond is proofed to 50%, as required for the designation.

Maverick Distilling was founded by a descendant of Samuel Maverick, a Texas land baron, lawyer, politician, and signer of the Texas Constitution. The distillery, located steps from the Alamo, was the former home of Lockwood National Bank (c. 1918). The bank’s underground vaults, located beneath the distillery, are where this whiskey was aged.

Buckner’s 17 year old Single Barrel Bourbon

ABV: Varies
SRP: $400
Availability: Distillery exclusive starting June 15th

Buckner’s is a series of age-stated single barrel expressions released by Augusta Distillery. The newest, a 17 year old, is the oldest one yet—following expressions aged 10, 13, and 15 years. The liquid is sourced from an undisclosed distillery in Kentucky.

Augusta Distillery was founded in 2018 and sits on the banks of the Ohio River in the small town of Augusta, Kentucky. The distillery is housed in a converted factory building from the late 1800s and is not yet fully operational. Augusta Distillery is expected to have an annual capacity of 14,000 barrels and will use two 14-inch copper column stills. In the meantime, Augusta is sourcing aged liquid from elsewhere in the state. Behind the wheel is master distiller Alex Castle, who joined the team after a nearly decade-long stint with Tennessee’s Old Dominick Distillery.

Augusta is set to hold a launch event for Buckner’s 17 on June 14th, a day ahead of the official release date. Attendees will have the opportunity to tour the distillery and taste the entire Buckner’s lineup. Guests will also receive a commemorative bottle of Buckner’s 17 and a glass. Tickets cost $699 and can be purchased at the distillery website.

Still Austin 5 year old Bottled in Bond Red Corn Bourbon (Summer 2024 Release)

ABV: 50%
SRP: $85
Availability: Limited; available at the distillery, online, and at select retailers.

Texas-based Still Austin has just announced a follow-up batch for its Bottled in Bond Red Corn bourbon, which is set to roll out at the end of the month. Its mashbill includes two corn varieties and a high share of rye: 36% red corn, 34% white corn, 25% rye, and 5% malted barley. This year’s version was aged for 5 years, a year older than the previous batch.

Last year Still Austin announced the start of a new series of bonded whiskeys, each meant to represent the season it was released. The first whiskey to hit the shores was the summery Bottled in Bond Red Corn—the new whiskey’s predecessor—and it was subsequently joined by a high-rye bourbon in fall, a blue corn bourbon as a winter release, and finally a rye whiskey for spring.

That initial run came with the promise of yearly additions to the series. With this release Still Austin is making good on that pledge, and that’s certainly welcome news considering how well last year’s batches have performed. 2023’s entries in the bonded series notched some of the highest scores we’ve awarded to the distillery thus far: Three separate expressions (Red Corn, Blue Corn, and Rye) all scored 92 points, while High Rye earned an 89-point rating.

Traverse City The Original Old Fashioned Prepared Cocktail

ABV: 37%
SRP: $30/375ml
Availability: Available in 32 states and online

Traverse City Cherry Old Fashioned Prepared Cocktail

ABV: 27%
SRP: $20/375ml
Availability: Available in 32 states and online

Michigan’s Traverse City Whiskey Co. is introducing two new RTD Old Fashioned cocktails to its core lineup. The Original is made using 6 year old bourbon, while Cherry uses Traverse City’s American Cherry Edition cherry-flavored whiskey as a base. Both are made using simple syrup, bitters, and citrus, and Traverse City recommends drinking them chilled.

Traverse City’s whiskey offerings are dominated by flavored whiskeys, bourbon, and rye. The list also includes some wine cask finished expressions, and some barrel proof bottlings as well. Alongside those, it also makes canned Highballs available in lemonade, cherry, and ginger ale flavors. It also offers an experimental gin called Verse, which is distilled from northern botanicals and rested in bourbon barrels.